The FA Cup quarter-finals bring League One’s bottom club Port Vale to SW6, where Chelsea will aim to end their fairytale run.

The Blues have never previously been matched with the Valiants in this competition – in fact the pair are meeting for the first time on any front in almost a century.

The match kicks off on Saturday at 5.15pm UK time and is our first home fixture this season in English football’s most prestigious trophy chase.

Excitement in the canal town of Burslem (hence the port in their name) is through the roof and 6,000 travelling Valeites will celebrate their club’s best run for generations.

However, three losses in four League One games has left Jon Brady’s side 14 points adrift of safety with eight games to go.

A drop back to the fourth tier is looming but the basement club can reach for the stars in the capital – and they ousted top-flight Sunderland 1-0 at home in the previous round.

Meanwhile Chelsea have now played over 300 minutes across all competitions without scoring a goal – since Enzo Fernandez made it 2-2 away at PSG in the 57th minute.

That said, the eight-time FA Cup-winners have progressed from 64 of our past 66 FA Cup ties against lower-league sides, including each of the past 25.

Championship Wrexham made a fight of it in round five before the Blues eased to a 4-2 win.

Booking a semi-final trip to Wembley could be just the boost Liam Rosenior’s team needs as the season enters its decisive final phase.

How both teams reached this stage of the FA Cup

Chelsea team news

Liam Rosenior confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Estevao Willian and Jamie Gittens are both fit to face Port Vale, but the game comes too soon for Cobham-schooled trio Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill.

'Reece is getting along really well but he’s not ready yet,' said Rosenior. 'Trevoh is progressing really, really well and it’s great to have Levi [Colwill] back in full training, but it’s going to take him a few more weeks to tick those boxes before he’s ready [to feature].

'Elsewhere we have pretty much a fresh group to work with. Best of all, Estevao [is fit], Jamie Gittens is back and that’s really positive in terms of going into the run-in [of the end of the season].

Elsewhere, our head coach confirmed that Enzo Fernandez will miss this fixture and Sunday's Premier League clash with Manchester City, due to comments the midfielder gave during the international break.

‘I spoke with Enzo an hour ago,' our head coach stated. ‘As a football club, and with me as part of that process, we've made a decision: he won't be available for tomorrow's game and he won't be available for Manchester City next Sunday.’

Chelsea vs Port Vale – the history

Previous encounters between Chelsea and Port Vale were confined to 14 Division Two matches over a quarter-century between 1905 and 1929.

The first came during the Pensioners’ debut season in October 1905 at then Burslem Port Vale’s Athletic Ground in Stoke-on-Trent with one of three away defeats to the Valiants (the second coming the following season).

At the Bridge in March 1906 it was a different matter, the promotion-chasing Londoners racking up a then-club record seven without reply – the last of them only five minutes into the second half.

Remarkably, Chelsea goalie and skipper Willie Foulke saved four penalties that season – and two of those came within minutes of each other towards the end of the triumph over the Midlanders.

A year later, in March 1907, a 2-1 victory at home to the Vale kept William Lewis’s side on course for promotion, ‘Gatling Gun’ George Hilsdon’s penalty scooping the points.

In fact the Blues’ first six encounters with the Valiants at the Bridge were wins – with a goals aggregate of 16-2.

During this period, in September 1925, Vale also fell victim to Chelsea’s brilliant exploitation of the new offside law.

The Londoners had played the official trial match months before its introduction and worked out ploys that bamboozled opposition defences. The Midlanders were not alone in having no answer and David Calderhead’s visitors ran out 6-0 winners.

The final season we met, 1928/29, was notably different. A seesaw match at the Bridge in November ended 3-3 and in April Vale’s superior desire won the day 1-0 – though they were still relegated weeks later.

FA Cup regulations

Each FA Cup tie will be decided on the day, with no replays. Should the scores be level after second-half stoppage time 30 minutes of extra-time will be played and, if necessary, the winner will be determined by penalties.

The VAR system is in operation across all fixtures.

Players can now make FA Cup appearances for two different clubs in the same season without being cup-tied.

All the last-four ties will be played over the weekend of 25/26 April.

This year’s final will be staged at Wembley on 16 May 2026, the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season.

Know this…

This is Chelsea’s 50th match across all competitions and Port Vale’s 53rd.

This season the Blues have become the first league team to score four or more goals in three away games in an FA Cup campaign since Derby County in 1945/46 (when every round had home and away legs).

The Londoners have advanced to the last four from nine of our past ten FA Cup quarter-final ties and each of the last six.

The Londoners’ biggest ever win in the quarter-finals of this competition was 5-0 at home to Gillingham in February 2000 – Tore Andre Flo, John Terry, George Weah, Gianfranco Zola and Jody Morris the goalscorers.

Port Vale have made an occasional habit of spoiling big clubs’ days. They stunned Cup holders Tottenham 2-1 in 1988, knocked Everton out by the same scoreline in 1996 and reached the semi-finals with the ‘Iron Curtain’ team of 1953/54 as a Third Division side.

Chelsea were the first Football League club from London to reach the FA Cup final in 1915 and rank third for the number of times we have won the competition (8).

The third-tier Valiants and Championship promotion hopefuls Southampton are the FA Cup’s last remaining contestants from outside the Premier League.

Port Vale hold the record as the club that has played the most seasons in the EFL (113 plus) without reaching the top flight.